UNDP to Partner with Kabale University on Tourism and Business Incubation Hub

The Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Uganda Ms. Elsie Attafuah visited Kabale University on Tuesday 31^st May 2022 with a UNDP team. She held a meeting with the members of University Management. The guests were received by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Joy Kwesiga at her office.

The Vice-Chancellor welcomed the delegation from UNDP and gave a brief background of Kabale University, and the services she offers to the community. She introduced the members of the University Management and the staff who were present in the meeting. She was optimistic that a good work relationship with UNDP would be beneficial to both parties.

She invited the different departments that were represented in the meeting to present their community engagement activities. Some of the staff present in the meeting were Dr. Christine Ampumuza who represented the Department of Tourism, Dr. Abanis Turyahebwa who represented the Department of Management Sciences, Procurement & Business Studies, Dr. Businge Phelix, the Dean of the Faculty of Library and Information and Information Sciences and Dr. Godwin Turyasingura the acting Dean of the Kabale School of medicine. The mentioned staff presented different activities in their faculties.

The UNDP representative pointed out that Uganda is rich, and Ugandans could tap into the available resources to feed the entire African continent. She said it’s possible to turn this story around by engaging in activities that involve the communities covering the Youth, Women, Old, and the Young. She cited the stone quarrying activities in the Kabale district which are destructive to the environment where young women and children are involved yet they could engage in other community activities like home-based tourism to earn a living.

Ms. Elsie called upon the University to be a vehicle in the transformation of the economy. she said The University can do craft academic programs that can change the mindset of the youth graduates. A case in point is the graduates that come out from different universities every year. These are over forty thousand and yet the job market cannot absorb all of them at the same time. She said once we start such programs aimed at helping the youth like the business incubation hubs, these can enable graduates to go out with projects that can create employment opportunities for them other than just searching for jobs.

She applauded the Tourism and Hospitality Department for the projects already involving the community and she offered to support them further. Similarly, credit was given to the Business department for the business incubation hub. It was noted that this needed further support to transform the communities around especially given the strategic location of Kabale University.  Ms. Elsie concluded by saying that Universities in Uganda need to position themselves as centers of student innovations ad help in following up on student ideas.

She promised to support Kabale University in Promoting Tourism and in setting up the business hub. In her closing remarks, the Vice-Chancellor thanked Dr. Pamela Mbabazi for fostering working relations between Kabale University and UNDP. She commended the wonderful work Ms. Elsie was doing in Uganda. She looked forward to the continued cooperation.